About Us

Contents

Background

Bartering for goods and services is increasingly common in today's
economy. Experts estimate that thousands of Canadians are purchasing
millions of dollars worth of goods and services through local barter
networks using little or no cash.

BarterWorks, established originally in 1992 as the K-W LETSystem, is
a local non-profit trade network supported by The Working Centre which
provides an infrastructure for organizing, planning and creating
exciting barter possibilities. Our members consist of individuals,
businesses and non-profit organizations.

We use the language of the gift economy in our accounting. Therefore
a negative balance represents a commitment to give something back to the
community and a credit represents acknowledgement for a gift or service
given to the community.

What BarterWorks Provides

Brings people together around the common goals of skills exchange
and cooperation

Recognizes the gift of skill and good work
Encourages people to define and describe their skills and abilities

Assists individuals to work towards developing small business and
income-generating ideas

Provides a base of over 100 members for businesses seeking to
promote their product or service

Starts from the premise of "ability" and is based on the ideas that
we all have skills and strengths to share with others

Creates a local currency that recognizes the important role that the
informal economy plays in a strong and healthy local economy

Why & How it Works

"LETS" (Local Exchange Trading System) is a way of getting around the need for money and conventional
employment. Money as we know it was created largely to address the most
significant flaw of bartering, which is that you can't always find
someone who has what you need and will accept what you have to offer as
payment. Money has solved that problem, but it has introduced new ones:

Money comes and goes; it doesn't stay in one place, it moves based
on decisions made by those who control the most of it

There is a limited amount of money; there has to be, if there is too
much money floating around, it loses its value

Only a select few can create more money; you can't just print it
yourself

As a result of these problems, money becomes a limited resource in
and of itself, and while it can be used to buy anything, if you don't
have any, no one will trade with you. However...

Whether or not a community has much money or faces serious
unemployment, the people still have skills, posses some resources, and
can still perform work. A LETSystem harnesses these resources, allowing
economic production to continue in a community despite a lack of money,
thus allowing the community to sustain itself.

Assigning a dollar value to labour is an idea born mainly out of the
industrial revolution, and the direct relationship between work and
money has imbedded itself deeply into our society. The reason for
working is not to make money however, but to produce goods and services;
money, as an artificial resource, is ultimately beside the point.
LETSystems such as BarterWorks are then just an alternate means of
organizing a community's economic activities, putting people back to
work - for themselves and their community - without the need for
conventional employment.

In a LETSystem such as BarterWorks, members of the community get
together to determine what goods and services they are willing offer one
another, and agree to offer these to the community in return for an
agreement from the rest of the community to do the same for them.

BarterWorks is a local trading organization based in the Waterloo
Region, Ontario, Canada. Our members offer goods and services ranging
from construction to accounting, legal services, child-care, graphic
design, clothing, food, health-care, entertainment, computer services
and much more.

Members trade goods and services through the exchange of barter
currency or a combination of barter and Canadian dollars. Skills and
talents are traded whether or not they are used professionally.

Trading

Trades are conducted between members by pricing goods and services
with a local currency called BarterDollars. BarterDollars ($B) have the
same value within the system as a federal dollar, and they only exist as
entries within the BW accounting system (i.e. there are no $B bills,
coins, or notes). BW members are each assigned an account to keep track
of their balance of $B. A new account's balance starts at 0; providing a
service to the BW community will increase the balance while receiving a
service will decrease it.

BarterWorks members set the prices of their goods and services as
they see fit, and are welcomed to charge a percentage of any trade in
federal currency since certain products are not available from with the
BW system. Generally, the costs of supplies and materials are charged
for in federal dollars, and labour and profit charged in BarterDollars.
For instance, a BW member decides to buy food from another member
partially using BarterDollars. A price of $20, with 50% payable in $B,
is negotiated. $10 of federal currency is paid to the seller, and the
seller records the $B10 trade transaction one of three ways:

leaving a message on the BarterWorks voice mailbox (519-743-1151 x139)

filling out a Barter Ledger Form and sending it to the BarterWorks
office

The seller can then spend their barter credit with the buyer or with
another member by locating a product or service they require in the
network's directory, e-group or at a Market Day.

Account Balances

The BarterWorks office has a central database which tracks member information and trades.
Transaction statements and account balances are available anytime upon request.

Having a positive account balance will not earn any interest, nor
will a negative balance incur any penalties. Members are given a $B250
'credit limit', meaning they can continue trading within the system as
long as they do not fall more than $B250 into the negative. A negative
account balance held by a member is essentially a promise to the
community to give service to other members, so you can start spending
BarterDollars as soon as you join!

We discourage large positive or negative balances because our system
operates best when people are consistently exchanging items.

Member Directory

The BarterWorks Directory is an excellent way to view the variety of
services and products that are available from our members. Both offers
and requests are categorized in the directory.

Members can create their own ad with assistance from the
BarterWorks Coordinator if requested. The Directory is
available to members in paper copy or online. Please click here to
download the Members' Directory in PDF format.

Community Market Days

Community Market Days take place on the last Saturday of
the month at Queen Street Commons Cafe (43 Queen Street South) from
11am-3pm. Please see the Events section for more information as
dates may be subject to change.

These events, which are open to the public, give BarterWorks members
opportunities to promote their goods and services, meet face to face and
expand the membership of the organization. All BarterWorks members are
invited and encouraged to attend.

Tables are provided free of charge for members to display their
goods. It is the responsibility of each member to reserve a table with
the Coordinator beforehand and to bring a float. Transactions are
recorded on ledger sheets which are submitted to the office at the end
of the day.

Members are encouraged to promote the Market Days. Posters are
created and distributed throughout the community to advertise these
events.

Online Trading

BarterWorks hosts an e-group which allows members to post messages
regarding services or products that they would like to offer or request.
These messages are sent to each participating member by email.

The group moderator sends an invitation to new members to join the group.
This allows for people to post new items in between directory updates.
It also allows new members to introduce themselves to the group and advertise items
that they will be selling at upcoming Market Days. Joining the Yahoo group is optional -
one simply "accepts" the invitation by clicking on the link in the e-mail to "join this group".